Feelings
by TamaraneanOnMars
Summary: I kind of want to thank you for assigning this homework, because I only just realized what I have been ignoring since I met her. I don't know if it actually is love, but I know that I do love her laugh, her eyes, her hair, her smile, her personality. It may be too much to say I love her, but I will anyway. I love Artemis Crock. Oneshot. Spitfire.


**Woah, I wrote something! I didn't think it possible! :0**

**I know that this is really unoriginal and has been done loads of times before, but I wanted to give it a try. I just thought '_Who knows? You might do better than the other stories like this._' Yeah, I was wrong. I can't make it original. :l**

**By the way, Artemis's Skype name (BlondeBowAndArrow) is actually the url of a tumblr Artemis roleplay blog. Go check her out, she is played perfectly! No capitals in the url, obviously, I just changed it a bit.**

**Title: Feelings**

**Characters/Pairings: Artemis, Wally, Spitfire**

**Summary: I kind of want to thank you for assigning this homework, because I only just realized what I have been ignoring since I met her. I don't know if it actually is love, but I know that I do love her laugh, her eyes, her hair, her smile, her personality. It may be too much to say I love her, but I will anyway. I love Artemis Crock.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, or any of it's characters.**

* * *

In most places, there is an unspoken rule; children don't understand love.

That's what his teacher had told them when explaining their homework, but Wally didn't see what he could do about it. How could writing about their 'deepest feelings and thoughts of love' do anything to change this? He didn't want his teacher reading what he was too nervous to tell his best friends or even his family. To address this problem, the teacher had told them not to worry, that only he will know what you had written, but that hadn't helped at all. His teacher knowing who he loved, who he held closest to him? Uh, no thanks.

Sir probably expected them all to write about their ten-thousandth crush and how they were absolutely, positively sure that they were the one, even if they said that about the last person to catch their attention. Wally was determined not to be like that, to write about his family instead, because he really did love them. He would talk about his Mom, his Dad, Barry and Iris, and he would make sure he wasn't thought of as a crush-driven lunatic, like most students his age. So, once he got home, he sat down, started up his laptop, opened a Word document and thought. And thought. And thought. You would think that after all this thinking, he'd have something, but half an hour later, the document was still blank and he was playing Pacman.

He cursed loudly as the red ghost ate his last Pacman, so loudly that Mary peeked in, frowning disapprovingly. "What did you just say?" She had asked, eyebrow raised. Wally cleared his throat.

"... Ship?" He half said, half asked. Laughing nervously, he rubbed the back of his neck as Mary raised an eyebrow.

"Right. Now stop playing Pacman - You have homework." She told him, voice stern but amused at the same time. Wally groaned as she left and closed the door behind her. He turned back to his screen and reluctantly closed the Chrome browser that he had been playing on and the screen flicked back to the Word document, still empty and in need of writing on. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. However, he froze when the Skype symbol on his task bar flashed orange to indicate a new message. He frowned and ignored it.

It flashed again, and he shrugged to himself. Sure, he had to get on with his homework, but someone was trying to talk to him. Didn't want to be a bad person and ignore them, now, did he? So, he minimized the Word document that now held a grand total of two words and opened Skype, to see that the person messeging him was Artemis. He raised an eyebrow and clicked on it. He smirked as he read her messages and decided to answer.

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: Hey, Wallace.

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: I'm bored. Wanna talk?

[Wall-Man]: Arty, I didn't know you enjoyed my company enough to talk to me willingly! :0

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: Don't flatter yourself, Kidiot. No one else was online. -_-

[Wall-Man]: Kidiot? Oh, good one. :p

He chuckled as he typed his reply and pressed enter. As it appeared in the chat box, he quickly flicked back to the Word document he was supposed to be writing on. He thought for a moment. He should probably get it done. But who could he write about? He had tried his family, and that hadn't worked. He could say how he loved his friends, but that was even harder. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, leaning back in his desk chair. '_Maybe it would be easier to just start writing and see who I start writing about._' He thought, looking back at his screen. '_Yeah._' Just as he got ready to type, there was a beeping noise, the Skype icon flashed again and he put off his homework even longer by clicking it to see the message.

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: Not my best, admittedly.

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: What are you doing to pass the time, then?

[Wall-Man]: I have homework to do. :C

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: Aw, poor Wally. xD What's it about?

[Wall-Man]: I have to write about my feelings. *pukes*

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: Lol have fun with that. I'll be here to talk once you're done.

[Wall-Man]: Aw, you're abandoning me? Why can't I talk to you while doing homework?

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: Because then you won't do it. The fact that you want to talk to me shows that you are desperate for a distraction. xD

Wally smirked at that but frowned when she logged off - or maybe she made herself appear offline so that he wouldn't talk to her. Who knew Artemis was interested in his education? He sighed and minimized Skype so that the Word document appeared on his screen. He positioned his hands over the keyboard for a moment, thinking, before he started to type.

_I've always prided myself on being the 'ladies man'. I would flirt with girls so much it was almost as natural as breathing. Any girl, as long as she seemed to be a good person (I didn't want to end up dating a jerk - that's the kind of person I hate). I grew better and better at charming girls and they almost always seemed to respond with more flirting, or an offer of drinks. I loved it. I loved being the center of attention and how the girls practically swooned for me. It was, you could say, the life._

_Then, I joined this... group of friends. One of them is a girl named M'gann - _He paused, before deleting the last couple of words and carrying on - _a girl named Megan. She is sweet, kind, funny. She's good at cooking and, after some practice, can make cookies to die for. She is caring. She laughs and smiles a lot and her presence always seems to make the room brighter. Basically, she is everything I look for in a girl. For a while, I told myself that she was the one I wanted. I flirted with her and acted oblivious to her obvious disinterest. When she started dating someone else in this group of friends, however, I gave up. I couldn't continue to hit on her when she was dating one of my best friends. I may be rude sometimes, but I'm not a complete jerk.  
_

_Anyway, I decided to think stuff over. I just sat somewhere and thought. And thought. And thought. After a while, I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't getting me anywhere. I had almost given up when Artemis, a girl also in this group of friends, walked past and told me how stupid I looked. I had glared at her, and she had just smirked and walked out. So, when I started thinking again, I thought of her._

_She is just so annoying. She laughs at everything I do and her laugh is so nice that it distracts me from what I'm doing. That's just rude. She's the only one that calls me out on my mistakes and thanks to her I have been saved from loads of awkward situations, but I still don't understand why she can't do the polite thing and keep her mouth shut like everyone else does when I've done something wrong. Her hair is blonde, which is just wrong. She's half Vietnamese! She's not supposed to have hair that looks so nice in the light! Plus, her eyes are two colours at once, which should be impossible, but no-o, this is Artemis, she has to have eyes that look a brilliant blue in the sun but a soft grey indoors._

_She is so oblivious it kills me, it's so aggravating! When we go out - all of us, not just the two of us, God, no - and we are walking through town, she doesn't even notice how she grabs the attention of all the guys our age. I hate how they drool over her. Can't they just leave her alone? And why doesn't she notice? She should kick their butts for looking at her like that, but no, she just smiles to herself, lost in her thoughts, or talks to Megan as we walk._

_She always manages to make the situation awkward. I could be sitting on the couch at - _He stops again and thinks, trying to hide his identity_ - Megan's house, and she comes over too, sits next to me and watches the TV with me. Everything's fine until I catch her looking at me and suddenly everything is awkward and I can't even look at her! It's all her fault - what kind of person would do that to a perfectly platonic situation?_

_But the thing I really hate about her, the thing that keeps me up at night, is how I find that I can't hate her. Whenever I hear her laugh, or she calls me out on something I did, or I see her blonde hair or eyes in the sunlight, or some guys wolf-whistles at her in the street or whenever she looks away from me, hiding a blush, I feel this thing inside me, like a thousand butterflies flying free after the hatch of their cage is opened. I find myself loving, not hating, how she mocks me, how she comes over and watches a movie with me on the TV, how she smiles genuinely at me when she says thank you or says goodbye. I love her smile - not her smirk, not her grin, her smile. It's soft yet powerful at the same time, and every time I see it I feel my insides do somersaults. _

_I didn't know what to write about at first, when I was asked to write about love. I thought about writing about my family, but that didn't work. I tried my group of friends - that didn't work either. I think it's because I can't put my feelings for them into words. I think I was only able to put my feelings for Artemis into words because I only realized how I felt about her as I was writing them. It may seem strange, but now I kind of want to thank you for assigning this homework, because I only just realized what I have been ignoring since I met her. I don't know if it actually is love, but I know that I do love her laugh, her eyes, her hair, her smile, her personality. It may be too much to say I love her, but I will anyway. I love Artemis Crock. __I didn't understand what love was before, but I think I do now. __Because now I can't imagine my life without her._

Wally sat back in his chair and read it through again. He couldn't believe that he actually loved Artemis. All this time, all these months, he had mistaken love for hate. He had called her a harpy, Red Arrow's replacement. He had called her insecure and selfish. He had hurt her so many times, and she stayed with him, hearing his words and soaking them in, hiding her hurt behind a mask of smirks and insults. He felt guilt crash down on him and he couldn't believe how much of a jerk he was.

She had had such a hard life. She had an abusive father, an evil sister, a crippled mother. She had been raised as a tool, an assassin, and when she finally broke away from them and managed to come onto the side of good, she had to deal with him. Wally West, who hated her and pointed out her flaws, who told her just how useless and insignificant she was on a daily basis, who she had forgiven. She had forgiven him and was now joking with him on Skype. He let his head fall into his hands and groaned. He didn't deserve her forgiveness. She should hate him for the pain he caused her, but she was too good a person to do that. Part of him was glad, though, that she had forgiven him. He didn't think he could bear it if Artemis hated him.

He jumped as his computer beeped, almost falling out of his seat. He looked at his screen and saw that Artemis had messaged him again. He found his mood immediately lifting and realized that now he had stopped denying it, he was happy every time she talked to him or was even in his presence. With a smile, he clicked on the Skype icon.

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: You done yet? I'm bored.

[Wall-man]: Yeah, I'm done.

[BlondeBowAndArrow]: So, who'd you write about?

[Wall-Man]: Oh, no one in particular.


End file.
